


Witcher's Work

by orphan_account



Category: The Witcher (TV), Wiedźmin | The Witcher (Video Game), Wiedźmin | The Witcher - All Media Types, Wiedźmin | The Witcher Series - Andrzej Sapkowski
Genre: Gen, Inspired by The Witcher, Monsters, Poetry, Witcher Contracts, it's a metaphor
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-28
Updated: 2020-02-28
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:47:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 176
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22943533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: Witcher, you know what all survivors know:this world is full of monstersand evil is ordinary.Walk the Path anyway.
Kudos: 11





	Witcher's Work

**Author's Note:**

> I had Cavafy's "Ithaka" in my head when I wrote this. Yeah, I dunno. Enjoy?!

On the Path, witcher,  
you will pass empty contract boards  
and villages in an ordinary bustle.  
The laughter of children,  
the gossip of men and women  
about other men and women,  
still alive, themselves gossiping,  
the pacifying rhythms of work and rest,  
winter following autumn,  
hunger and feeding and hunger again--  
these will cast an illusion of  
routine, a place too dull and common  
to accommodate evil.  
You will want to believe it,  
and when the villagers see you  
they will tell you to pass by.

But you who know monsters,  
scarred survivor of many Trials,  
you see with witcher’s eyes  
the blood trails in the dirt,  
the claw marks of predators in the trees.  
In streets of laughter, you sense  
the waiting beasts. 

Witcher, you know what all survivors know:  
this world is full of monsters  
and evil is ordinary.  
Walk the Path anyway.  
When you are told to pass by,  
look anyway.  
And when you find monsters,  
do your witcher’s work--  
not to save the world,  
but to leave it  
with one less monster.


End file.
